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MAVEN Launching
November 18, 2013
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NASA
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MAVEN selfie with Mars in the background.
MAVEN Selfie with Mars in the Background
When you navigate with a compass you can orient yourself thanks to Earth's global magnetic field. But on Mars, if you were to walk around with a compass it would haphazardly point from one anomaly ...
MAVEN Magnetometer
Download NASA's Mars Orbiter coloring sheet.
MAVEN at Mars, Coloring Sheet
This animation shows the sudden appearance of a bright aurora on Mars during a solar storm. The purple-white color scheme shows the intensity of ultraviolet light over the course of the event, from...
Solar Storm Triggers Whole-Planet Aurora at Mars
Conceptual image of wind (blue arrows) flowing over rugged Martian terrain and generating disturbances that propagate upward as atmospheric gravity waves (grey lines).
Artist's Concept of Wind Flowing over Martian Terrain
The places where the red line on this graph extends higher than the blue line show detection of metals added to the Martian atmosphere from dust particles released by a passing comet on Oct. 19, 20...
Comet Meteor Shower Put Magnesium and Iron into Martian Atmosphere
Ancient riverbeds, crater lakes and flood channels all attest to Mars's warm, watery past. So how did the Red Planet evolve from a once hospitable world into the cold, dry desert that we see today?
MAVEN: NASA's Next Mission to Mars
This is an image of the ultraviolet “nightglow” in the Martian atmosphere over the south pole. Green and white false colors represent the intensity of ultraviolet light, with white being the bright...
Ultraviolet ‘Nightglow' of Mars Atmosphere Over South Pole
Mars was once on track to become a thriving Earth-like planet, yet today it is an apparently lifeless wasteland. A NASA spacecraft named MAVEN will soon journey to Mars to find out what went wrong ...
What Happened to Mars? A Planetary Mystery
The MAVEN Electra UHF Transceiver Flight Model is shown here.
MAVEN Electra UHF
This is an artist's conception of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution MissioN (MAVEN) Mars orbiter.
Artist's Concept of MAVEN
This ultraviolet image near Mars’ South Pole was taken by MAVEN on July 10 2016 and shows the atmosphere and surface during southern spring.
Ultraviolet Image Near Mars' South Pole
This visualization shows MAVEN and Comet Siding Spring making their way through the solar system to a close encounter near Mars. This animation maintains a fixed camera above the ecliptic plane of ...
Comet Siding Spring Wide Shots (Fixed)
MAVEN was launched into a Hohmann Transfer Orbit with periapsis at Earth’s orbit and apoapsis at the distance of the orbit of Mars. The spacecraft will travel more than 180 degrees around the Sun i...
Hohmann Transfer Orbit
For optimal performance, it’s important for the high-gain antenna to maintain a consistent temperature while the spacecraft experiences large temperature swings from being exposed to the Sun or in ...
MAVEN High-Gain Antenna WIth Radome
The Solar Wind Electron Analyzer, shown here before being delivered to Lockheed Martin for integration with the MAVEN spacecraft.
MAVEN Solar Wind Electron Analyzer
Robert Lin, the late director of the Space Sciences Laboratory, discusses how NASA's MAVEN spacecraft will study the interaction of the Martian atmosphere with the solar wind. MAVEN's findings will...
Studying the Solar Wind on Mars
The MAVEN spacecraft is shown here in testing for Electromagnetic Interference and Electromagnetic Compatibility.
MAVEN EMI:EMC Test
This radio hardware, the Electra UHF Transceiver on NASA's MAVEN mission to Mars, is designed to provide communication relay support for robots on the surface of Mars.
Electra Relay Radio on MAVEN Mission to Mars
MAVEN will use its Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer to study the interaction of neutral gases and ions in the Martian atmosphere with the solar wind, helping scientists to understand how Mars ...
Searching for Mars' Missing Atmosphere
On May 16, 2013, the MAVEN spacecraft began nearly three weeks of thermal vacuum cycling, where it was exposed to the temperature swings it will experience during its mission to study the Martian u...
MAVEN in TVAC
Crews guide NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, spacecraft, inside a payload fairing, into place atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facili...
MAVEN Placed Atop Atlas V
Download a PDF of MAVEN Frequently Asked Questions.
MAVEN FAQs
Energetic particles from a large solar storm in September 2017 were seen both in Mars orbit by NASA's MAVEN orbiter, and on the surface of Mars by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.
Solar Storm's Radiation at Martian Orbit and Surface
MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, is a new NASA spacecraft embarking on a mission to study Mars' upper atmosphere, seeking to learn how the atmosphere and environment ...
MAVEN to Explore Upper Atmosphere of Mars
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